Saturday, January 17, 2015

My yoga
teachers used to tell me that yoga was all that was needed for a healthy body,
mind and spirit. And for a long time, I believed them. While many of my friends
openly questioned my faith in yoga, and my own doubts would frequently bubble
up to the surface, I was fully committed to following what I thought was the
yogic path.

While a
graduate student, I consulted an MD for a required physical. At the end of the
exam, the doctor removed his glasses, looked me right in the eye, and asked if
I was keeping physically active. With a great deal of confidence, I responded
that I practiced yoga for a few hours each day, and as a result, was in perfect
physical condition. The doctor’s arched eyebrow should have been a clue that my
perceived fitness was far removed from my actual fitness.

It turned out
that perceived exertion and the benefits of working out aren’t always aligned.
After years of exploring, researching, and experimenting, I have fully
experienced the gulf between perceived exertion and actually deriving the
benefits from working out.

You see, yoga
can have a high degree of perceived exertion. You may experience trembling
muscles and be drenched with sweat, but the benefits of exercise can be elusive.
It may seem like you’ve completed a beneficial workout but perceived exertion
can be deceiving.

Western
science has quantified what it takes to derive maximum benefit from the time
you spend working out, and it largely hinges on heart rate. Above a certain
heart rate, exercise delivers the benefits I mentioned in the previous blog
posting. Below this target heart rate, the activity may have benefits for mind
and spirit, though in terms of all-round health, may be falling short.
Perceived exertion can be deceiving: sometimes a workout that seems very
demanding fails to elevate the heart rate into the beneficial aerobic zone.

Some of the
sweatiest and most demanding forms of yoga have been thoroughly studied, and
consistently fall short in delivering the measurable benefits of exercising.
It’s not to say the yoga isn’t without benefit. But to suggest that yoga, yoga,
yoga is going to keep you all-over healthy is misleading. Yoga can be part of a
body/mind fitness program, though probably doesn’t merit placing all of your
proverbial fitness-eggs in the yoga basket.

I like
how it feels to cultivate aerobic fitness. My body feels toned and energized,
and my mind is noticeably calmer and more focused. Clearly aerobic fitness
isn’t solely about the body – it also deeply affects the mind. And recent
research is demonstrating the vast, often surprising, ways that aerobic fitness
cultivates a healthier mind.

As an
experiment, I’ve been wearing a heart rate monitor as I do various activities.
If I walk briskly, I can just tap into my aerobic heart rate zone. But if I do
a tough Pilates workout, even though I’m huffing and puffing and covered with
sweat, I am nowhere near target heart rate. And when I do a bunch of yoga sun
salutations, again covered with sweat and huffing and puffing, still almost no
uptick in heart rate. While I perceive that I’m getting a good workout the
reality is that the benefits of aerobic fitness are remaining out of reach in
my yoga practice.

If you’re
seriously hoping to cultivate greater body/mind health, the best approach is
variety: some yoga, some strength work, and some workouts to build aerobic
fitness. Variety is the key! And in addition to working with the physical body,
daily prayer and/or meditation helps keep us connected with the greater whole.

Welcome to the Alignment Yoga blog, where you'll find yoga articles, videos and audio presentations by Scott Anderson, with an emphasis on how to avoid common mistakes we make doing this ancient practice with our Western bodies and minds.